And we’re off! Spurs’ first win of the season, the transfer window mercifully closed for a few precious, peaceful months, so let’s get on with it.

This invitation I have for a forthcoming event, ‘7 for 7.30’, what does that mean? Do I get there at 7 or 7.30? if it’s going to start at 7.30, because I cannot magically beam myself from the tube station to my seat in one millisecond I will get there early, in all probability between 7 and, oh let’s say for argument’s sake, 7.29. But the seeds of doubt have been sown. Does it really begin at 7pm, will the real business take place over a glass of warm white wine in the foyer?. So that means I should be there at 6.45 to hit the ground running at 7, right?

Wrong. It’s a social work event and they never start on time. Someone will wander up to the top table at 7.40, when I have been in my seat for 10 minutes because that’s when it starts, and announce they don’t want to interrupt the buzz and flow in the room, and that’s what’s important on evenings like this. No it isn’t – what’s important is what the speaker has got to tell me.

The Premier League is like that these days, except of course by now I’ve shelled out over £100 for the privilege of being kept waiting while clubs and players sort themselves out. Contrary to popular opinion, social workers can (and have) organised a p**s up in a brewery whereas Daniel Levy can’t organise a Tottenham transfer window.

More about that later. For the moment, 3 points from the Sunderland game and a fabulous goal, the memory of which will linger long after this uninspired performance has faded from our consciousness. You can keep your 30 yard thunderbolts, nothing like a bit of pass and move for me. Mason, who has impressed me this season, began it in centre field. Too often Spurs’ movement and passing had been good yesterday only to run out of steam when we reached the penalty area. A nothing ball from Walker, hold on to it as the clock was running down. On top now, Spurs had escaped from a first half that ended goalless despite Defoe giving the back four the right run-around and might settle for an away point.

Mason however, was intent only on driving forward. To Lamela and back, still forward. To Kane, Lamela again, now Mason is in the box and on the end of a perfect ball, chipped over the keeper and in. No pass over 10 yards, pass and move, Mason involved three times, runs 45 yards to apply the finishing touch.

Plenty of effort and movement from Spurs, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Class however was in short supply. Dele Alli provided the only other instance, a little shimmy wide left and the defenders were gone. To the byline but no one was on hand to touch in his graceful cross as it slid across the 6 yard box.

Otherwise, for much of the game we looked like a side getting to know each other, which because of the window is what we are. The 4-2-3-1 is familiar but in Alderweireld we have a new centre half and going forward Son and Alli, welcome though they are, are new to this. Hence lots of movement off the ball when we had possession but it quickly became disjointed and the moves broke down without creating shots on target.

Both these attackers will learn. Son had some freedom to work around and off Kane – with Chadli given a similar brief from the left, it’s likely this is where Pochettino plans to generate some goals. Son provided the third memorable moment, managing to pass a corner straight into touch on the same side of the field.

Alli gives attacks that little bit of impetus whenever he gets onto the ball. I like players like that very much and I will get to like him a lot over the next couple of years. Highly promising.

All was not well at the back. Sunderland hit us hard and effectively on the counter with all members of the back four finding themselves stranded at one point or another. If Vertonghen is going to come to get the ball, he either needs to be coached out of what I suspect is his footballing instinct or someone needs to be ready to cover for him. In the second half he held off a Sunderland break then timed his edge of the box tackle perfectly.

In fairness, Defoe was crafty, playing off the shoulder and darting onto well-placed through-balls. It’s hard for a defender to have eyes in the back of his head. Clean through, he hit the far post when he should have scored. Lloris left a fraction more space than usual at his near post as he advanced. He knows JD and suspected he was likely to put that ball across not inside him. Shrewd, leaving a more difficult angle.

Spurs had the better of the second half. Sunderland’s attack was blunted because we cut the supply at source by keeping possession better and dominating the midfield. Defoe made the runs, now there were no passes reaching him. Kane missed a good chance, Dier headed over, Son dithered, Chadli dithered then dithered then dithered again.

My wife’s grandson popped in as Mason scored. I rewound to show him the goal, OK four or five times, then I joked about how a minute behind live now, we were bound to have let Sunderland back into it. How funny am I. The Black Cats wanged the ball against the bar but we got away with it, and three points.

Mason was carried off after the keeper clattered him in the act of scoring. Let’s hope he recovers, his workrate and insistence on getting the ball forward (vital to Pochettino’s approach) has marked him out as our best player so far this season.

Another young man with a mature, impressive attitude was voted man of the match on Sky. Eric Dier made several timely interceptions and penalty-box tackles. What we lose in passing and creative ability in possession we gain in terms of defensive stability, plus he allows Mason to get forward. On balance, a good thing, especially as Bentaleb has begun poorly and we didn’t sign anyone in that position.

One more observation – this season we have had no problem in getting players both forward and back as needed. I’ve criticised Spurs teams for this basic fault over the past seasons. Not a problem at the moment. On several occasions our waste of good opportunities was all the more galling because the final ball did not reach willing players in the box. At that other end, the incident I described above where Verts made his tackle, it was a quick break yet by the time the ball reached the danger area we had four men back.

The window, ah yes. I was busy on deadline day, BBC Sport asked for a 100 words at the beginning of the day and straight after the window closed. I left the article, best to let supporter anger subside, cool heads.

Here’s my summing up for BBC Sport. In the morning:

“Starting the season with only one striker, Harry Kane, is unfathomable or bang stupid. Either way, it’s left fans frustrated and angry. Son’s arrival injects pace and goals into an attack that badly needs both.

Deadwood from successive failed transfer windows has been shipped out. That leaves Adebayor and, sadly, Lennon to go. Milan is wooing Lamela, unable or unwilling to play to the pace in the Premier League, while the lumbering Fazio is an anachronism in Pochettino’s high-tempo, pressing style.

The summer arrivals of Alderweireld, Wimmer and Trippier brought overdue reinforcements to a beleaguered defence. Another striker will be handy but an experienced defensive midfielder to protect the back four and hold the team together is essential.”

And an hour after it closed:

“Spurs’ failure to sign another striker or an experienced midfielder signals a deplorable lack of ambition that could stifle the development of a young squad full of potential and leaves us vulnerable to competitors. The right men in these two positions could make a significant difference but chairman Daniel Levy, the so-called shrewd negotiator, catastrophically misjudged a market flush with TV cash. Teams no longer have to cave in because they just don’t need the money.  Another window, yet another missed opportunity.

Today’s desperate Berahino or bust shambles obscures concerns that Spurs’ overhaul of scouting and recruitment failed to find alternatives. The club site’s pathetic attempt to solve the problem by reclassifying Heung-Min Son as a striker did not play well with frustrated and furious fans.  Now let’s get behind the team. COYS.”

Two weeks and three points later, I don’t feel much different. I search for patterns and a plan, often in vain, What are Spurs, Levy, Redknapp, AVB, MP, what are we trying to do? This is my biggest problem with our actions during this window. This isn’t about the cash or so-called financial prudence: Levy failed under his own terms.

Not only do I think we need a striker, it’s clear Pochettino thinks so too, despite his bland PR assurances that everything is fine. Why else would Levy have made a sustained effort to sign Berahino? Leaving aside whether or not this young man is good enough for us and/or value for money, the manager wants and needs a striker and in the Supporters’ Trust joint meeting with the Board, Levy assured us that he was going to back the manager.

He has a funny way of showing it. A feature of this window is that clubs have been better able to resist big bids for their players. Everton were able to turn down £40m for Stones, Saints sent us packing when we asked about Wanyama. This is because clubs are flush with TV money. It’s a shame and a sin therefore that Levy, the so-called fly sly negotiator failed to move with the times. His tactics in the boardroom were as outmoded as 5-3-2 is on the pitch.

It’s embarrassing but I’m not really worried about that. I care about the team and we are poorly equipped for a long and intensely competitive season. I get the purchase of Son for his flexibility and goals but designating him as a striker on the official site when (allegedly) he was previously a midfielder and (definitely) the club have registered him with UEFA in the EL as a midfielder is just insulting to fans.

This is failure under Levy’s own terms. Buying a striker and a deep-lying midfielder is not only essential, it’s an investment for the future. Supply and demand – the demand for a striker and midfielder at Spurs is high, the supply of said players willing to come to a team that does not pay the highest wages is low. Pay the market price. if it keeps us in the top six, it is worth it. I’m not talking about the top four, way out of our league. Teams who finished below us last time around are getting organised. Drop out of the top six and Europe, it’s tough to get back, certainly without more investment than the cost of two players. Good players will be tempted to leave and we have a new ground to pay for.

To me this is why this season is a big one for Spurs. Get it wrong and we fall back burdened by the expense of a new ground. Levy has approached it on the cheap. I like our current squad, like their attitude, want to see the young men prosper. I fear that Levy’s rank mismanagement of the transfer window will make their task extremely hard. It’s avoidable, unfair and wrong.

Odd thing, creativity. Hard to put your finger on it, to put into words what creativity is, although you’ll know it when you see it. A spark perhaps that turns ordinary into extraordinary, the imagination to see something that others have not considered.

Sometimes creativity is best defined by its absence. Yesterday Spurs did most of the right things most of the time, all that was required was a moment of ingenuity to finish the hard graft and approach play that was a feature of the second half in particular, the best Tottenham have played this season. Yet when it mattered, inspiration deserted us. A good performance but no goals, and into the international break with no wins from 4.

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The team played well and individual performances were pretty good too. Mason, playing in the forward three, ran his socks off and made those lung-busting runs from deep that Pochettino is so keen on this season. Dembele had a sound first half then began the second like a man possessed, hurling himself at the defence and trying to knock down a few doors until he was stretchered off after another assault. The irony of finally playing as we hoped he could only to be injured will no doubt be lost on him as he puts up his bandaged leg this afternoon. Kane worked like a Trojan, behind him Dier mopped up most of the danger and Bentaleb got things going again. The defence was solid, restricting a busy but blunt Everton attack to only a couple of chances, one of which arose from a crass error by Walker.

This was a game for the one man who wasn’t there. Christian Eriksen, absent through injury, this match was made for him. After a close first period, the match opened up in the second half as Spurs made a concerted attempt to take the lead. Dier and Bentaleb provided the platform, the forwards the space, so Eriksen would have had the freedom to dominate his territory, between 20 and 40 yards from the opposition goal. Dier, Chadli and Mason skied good edge-of-the-box shots high into the crowd. Eriksen territory. Kane, Mason and Chadli darted into the box. Eriksen sat in the West Stand involuntarily miming knocking the through-ball in.

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By far the better side, Spurs made chances but sadly missed them. Some people are deeply suspicious of creativity. You can’t measure it or quantify it. It’s not something that can be drilled into someone, whether that be in an office training seminar room or the practice pitch of a top-class football club. Pochettino decided to cover Eriksen’s absence by selecting Mason in his place. Good footballer, I like him, but it felt as if hard work was replacing originality. Mason missed two good chances, one in the second half with just the keeper to beat when his left-foot shot was as tame as could be.

Mason however made the best chance of the match and his oppo Harry Kane missed it. Gliding onto a perfect long pass, Kane had time to control it only to stutter and stymie himself, contriving to bumble the ball against keeper Howards’ legs. Four games in, no goals and until today precious little support up front, Kane is weighed down by the burden of expectation. The moment when it became too much came a few minutes earlier. Having cut inside and shot, a la first goal Chelsea last season only much weaker, he then tried another from range to ruin a decent attack when others were better placed. He dashed back and fouled through frustration.

I read a lot of Ray Bradbury when I was younger, I should take another look. Bradbury once said, “Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It’s self-conscious, and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can’t try to do things. You simply must do them.” Being good and then thinking about what you did to be good is the biggest challenge any player faces once success touches them. Let it flow, H, just do your thing, and we can go back to supporting a young, talented footballer, because that’s what he is and always has been even when the goals came without thinking.

Before kick-off they showed a video of a nice lad wearing a Spurs shirt, Korean I’d say, enjoying an afternoon at the Spurs training ground. I couldn’t catch the commentary but it looked like he was pleased with his GCSEs and was having a day out before deciding on his options. English language and sports science?

Son will provide pace and goals, both much-needed. Another striker will be handy but an experienced defensive midfielder to protect the back four and hold the team together is essential.

Twitter is full of people adjudicating on those moments when football jumps the shark. My candidate for the clearest indication yet that football has eaten itself is the complaint from the West Brom chairman Jeremy Peace that Spurs had the cheek to bid for one of his players during the transfer window. Whatever next, West Brom buying two strikers in the same window, surely not?

Still, it did provide a first, at least for me, Spurs’ fans barracking a player, John Stones, for thinking about but not yet joining a club we don’t like. I liked the Everton riposte too: “I don’t care too much for money, money can’t buy you Stones.”

Spurs worked hard against Leicester but succeeded only in making hard work of a draw that could easily have become a defeat as a late goal I thought was never going to come was the signal for an all-too-familiar collapse. The lack of spark and creativity is becoming a problem.

Our first half toil was sweaty but ultimately pointless. We could not add the cutting edge to reams of possession. It reminded me less of a top six challenger and more of a midtable side using effort and energy to compensate for a skill deficiency.

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Pochettino would have been pleased with our goal, what with Deli Alli bombing past Kane to score. It was well-crafted and quick, out of keeping with much of what had gone before. Kane turned goalwards to find Chadli and our new boy knocked in the cross from point-blank range. Alli’s determination and power will be a real asset this season. A tantalising glimpse – more please.

A goal up with 9 minutes left is a signal for most teams to shut up shop. Spurs are the exception. Many of the players had the best view in the house as Mahrez, Leicester’s most dangerous player, launched another solo run goalwards. Vertonghen’s technique one-on-one was found out once again as leaden footed, he was squared up as the winger curled the ball inside the far post. Morgan missed a late chance to win it as he crashed a powerful header into Hugo’s chest.

We worked hard without creating very much and continuing last week’s theme of nothing changes, the way we ground to a halt at the edge of Leicester’s box is reminiscent of the days under AVB. Walker set up Chadli and Dembele stretched the keeper.

Another wasted afternoon from Lamela. Wasted possession, wasted one good chance, wasted his opportunity to start and until he realises the pace of the game is passing him by, a wasted talent.

Spurs could use this as a platform to build on. Spurs have made no progress since last season. Both are simultaneously true. The team is at one of watershed moments where it could go either way, where the echoes of decisions made in the next 7 days will reverberate for many seasons to come.

Tottenham are perceived as the perennial underachievers but another way of looking at this is that over the past five or six seasons we have over-achieved. Given the players at our disposal and the disruption at managerial and Director of Football level, we’ve consistently finished in top six whilst seldom playing consistently well and with clear deficiencies in the squad and tactics.

This isn’t cause for an open-top bus parade. I don’t necessarily approve of this state of affairs: I have enjoyed the status and much of the football without forgetting for a moment that potential has been wasted and the manner in which we have squandered opportunities to consolidate has been Soldado-esque. However, early Redknapp, AVB’s first season, qualifying for Europe while waiting to Sherwood to leave, all higher finishes than I expected given the lack of balance, depth and in some positions such as up front, quality of the squad.

We hope to push on after Pochettino took us to 5th in his first season, much of which was spent with him getting to know the players and the players coming to terms with what is expected of them. instead we are glimpsing how life would have been without those late Eriksen goals or Kane’s once-in-a-career purple streak. I said in my pre-season preview that while that high finish delighted me, it could become a millstone round the manager’s neck. A high final placing raises expectations that need to be fulfilled. Poch can go for the players he wants rather than work with those he was given by a manager and DoF with a different approach. To support him, he has a scouting set-up of his choosing too.

Three games in and they need time to settle, as does every team in the league by the way. We have upped our physicality and possession (saw an Opta stat saying PL players are running 20% further than 5 years ago) without adding that vital element of talent that makes a good team great. We’re not supporting Kane up front or getting back to cover, so we have midfielders in betwixt and between. The back four has been upgraded but is still not being protected. Alderweireld made a telling comment after the Stoke match last week, saying that at Southampton, Schneiderlin and Wanyama would have stopped those inswinging crosses coming in whereas at Spurs he was surprised at being left so exposed. This has been our problem for several seasons. It’s why our full-backs are under so much pressure. Opponents target that area, Walker usually, yesterday it was Davies who had a poor time.

So what are we doing about it? Strikers – we have one, need three. Berahino is a promising young player who likes the ball at his feet, a good buy if not the Holy Grail he seems to have become in the past week because we are so desperate. Desperation is not the best quality to bring to the negotiating table and the tension generated in Cold War era disarmament talks is nothing compared to Levy and Peace in a staring contest.

Let’s get down to it. If he’s our number one target, pay the money. I don’t like wasting cash on inflated transfer deals. £15m and anything north is a risk, but that’s not the point here. Fees are determined by market forces, supply and demand. In this case, supply is not the number of strikers out there, it is the number of strikers prepared to come to Tottenham. We may end up paying something close to the fee Chelsea have shelled out for Pedro, a much better player, but he’s not in the equation because he would never dream of playing for us.

If supply is defined as ‘the number of decent strikers prepared to play for Tottenham Hotspur’, then demand is high, supply is low, therefore price is high. Basic economics. The extra element of the high fee is a tax on Spurs’ inability to find somebody else, and we all have to pay our taxes. Don’t we?

I like Austin too, completely different to either Kane or Berahino. One touch, bam, shot on target. He could play with Kane, who has the movement and support play Austin lacks.

All this raises another question though. What is Poch looking for? I’m sure he wants one more striker but the suspicion lingers that he’s more keen on attacking midfielders to support/get past the main man. Also, he’s a fine coach but you can’t coach experience. We need someone to take charge in midfield, a creative and above influential central midfielder.

Micky Hazard was terrific on the Spurs Show this week with Martin Cloake, both well worth a listen. He repeated a great anecdote about the incomparable warrior Dave Mackay. Before they went out, he turned to the team and said, “Some of you are going to have a bad one out there today. The crowd will get on your backs. If that happens, give it to me.” We badly need that sense of authority. Yet there’s no hint MP is searching for it. Young players respond to him because he can make them better. The feeling niggles that he’s wedded to his way of going about his business and does not want to change, even though that’s what we need.

And then there’s Levy, always Levy. He may be saying, there’s not much money, we’re building a new ground don’t you know. Rules are made to be broken, and if our policy is to buy younger players to develop, fine, but sticking to it rigidly is cutting off the nose to spite the face, never mind the fact that authority and experience can help development.

We’ll have a clearer idea by the end of the month but not before an important home fixture against Everton. We need a win to get the season going. In the Independent on Friday, the press conference piece suggested Pochettino has a plan to try 4-4-2, at least as an option, although whether this is something the journo knows or is merely surmising is not clear.

The stakes are high. It’s not just about Berahino or Austin, it’s about developing the club’s medium and long-term future in a time when we are going to have to repay £350m (ish) in the next decade in a league where everyone is scrambling if not for the CL then for the crumbs from the top four’s table. Good players will leave if we are not successful and good players will not come to replace them. It’s not so much the fee for a young player, it’s an investment that will pay off in the future.

What have we learned from history?

Apparently nothing, nothing apparently

Apparently nothing, nothing apparently

(Young Disciples)

The grass was green, the players lean, their expressions more purposeful than mean but Spurs looked ready. They had something to prove in the first home game of the season, as a unit drilled and instilled in the Pochettino Way, as individuals too. Young men like Mason and Dier, determined to make the most of the responsibility placed at their feet. More experienced players given an opportunity to keep a first-team berth – Davies at left-back, Dembele with a spot to finally show his talents have a place in the set-up. Walker, under pressure now from Trippier at right-back, Alderweireld on his home debut.

By the end, the same old failings. Bright beginnings, earn a lead only to let it slip away with a mistake under pressure just as the game seemed won, by the finish grateful for a point.

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Years ago I wrote a good piece that accurately summarised a match, against Newcastle I think it was. A few paras from the end, I admitted it was cut and pasted from the corresponding fixture the previous season. Nothing changes – I could similarly choose from 50-odd pieces on the blog to sum this one up. Or pick out problems identified in the pre-season preview – a lack of presence in midfield that comes with experience, the two wide forwards set up to attack but unhappy defending, the lack of options up front. All played out before our very eyes – nothing has been done about them. The outcome may not have been a surprise and booing at full-time premature but it’s a sobering start to the season nonetheless.

Seat covered with birdturd – welcome back to White Hart Lane. Being Spurs, they lulled us into a false sense of security. In the sun, it was a busy start with everyone apparently clear about what they should be doing. Mason and Dier were solid in the centre and in front of them the forward 3 of Eriksen, Dembele and Chadli were smoothly interchanging positions. On the right Walker looked to get forward, if not with the ball at his feet then with a late run into space. He reached the byline once but took the soft option and pulled it back twenty yards instead of banging it into the box where danger lurks.

Our work was good even if it much of it was sideways. Credit to Stoke for this – they packed midfield and were hard to break down. Any goal at this point was likely to come from a set piece and Dier it was who was first to a near-post corner to head in. He scored Spurs’ first goal last season too.

Spurs had all the play, Stoke two good chances, one a header that Lloris saved well, the other when the keeper cleared a ball straight to a Stoke player on the edge of the box. Lloris persistently played the ball out dangerously close to the goal. This is obviously planned – Vertonghen and Alderweireld split either side of the box as soon as Hugo gets it – but it is so easy for the opposition to pressure us despite the latter’s ability to hit a scorching long ball.

After the half hour the game opened up and we went into the break two up. Davies got forward only once, to pick up a ball from Kane. It looked beyond him but not only did he pull it back, he found Chadli at the far post. Earlier the Belgian fluffed his control when clean through, this time his volley was deflected in.

Our best spell came after half-time. With Stoke looking to score, Spurs used the space to develop a few flowing moves. The best ended with Butland saving well from a close-range Kane effort.

Then the errors. Pochettino’s were crucial. He allowed Spurs to drop back and hit on the break. Kane came off – post-match Poch said he was tired, goodness knows what we will do if he is injured – as did Mason, who had a good game in midfield and nearly scored in the first half after a lovely take-down and shot in the box. This gave Stoke the initiative. Our attacks had come from Kane dropping short and team-mates bursting past him. Now that was gone, plus we had no out ball with Chadli at centre-forward. Stoke simply dropped deep to mop up a series of aimlessly drifting long-balls and so they could focus on attack. Lamela and Bentaleb, the two replacements, never picked up the pace of the game. Eriksen was invisible wide left as Stoke poured down our right, a familiar ploy last season against us. Walker had a decent game as did Dembele on the ball but instinctively he drifts in, leaving a gap.

Under not a lot of pressure, Alderweireld committed a foul in the box. After that penalty, Stoke seized control. Vertonghen and Toby were solid with the ball in front of them but we could not deal with a steady flow of inswinging crosses that produced three chances and two fine saves from Hugo before one finally went in.

Mark Hughes clearly had the better of Pochettino tactically. Our manager had a poor game and his chairman has had a poor pre-season. Spurs are a side with top six pretensions and only one striker. It astonishes me even though I have written it so many times. Even Coulthirst, who’s not good enough at this level, has gone out on loan. Kanemania obscures the hideous truth. Welcome Njie, Poch says, yes, he can play up front. No – I want someone with ‘striker’ on his biog. Spurs are a side with top six pretensions and only one striker.

Lamela looked out of his depth. Given a role on the right and a bit of space sometimes, he played at his pace as the game passed him by. No sense of positional discipline or of keeping the ball at a time when clear heads were needed.

Maybe the season really starts once the window shuts. Certainly for Spurs we cannot predict our prospects until we know if we have two more strikers and a central midfielder.

There’s been the usual social media infighting about Bobby Soldado, now mercifully  put out of his misery like a pitpony released from the depths into the green fields above or at least the Spanish sun where he will score the goals that eluded him in his desperate career at Spurs. Rumours that he installed a barn door in his back garden just to prove to himself that he could do it are probably unfounded but never has a striker with such an appalling record been sent on his way with such fond wishes from the supporters.

The reason is that Soldado offered something precious, gold, frankincense and myrrh to supporters – hope. His goals could have transformed the side into genuine contenders. It’s hard to let go of hope and for many their belief remained unshakeable even when confronted by stark reality. It helped that he is a decent, honest bloke. His quote praising the fans for our faith and adding that he was ashamed that he could not deliver was genuinely touching, a rare thing in football these days.

I grumbled toward the end but could not find it in my heart to attack a player who has been scoring goals since he first kicked a football as a toddler and who when instinct failed him therefore had no idea what to do. His form was so wretched, it went beyond anger into sympathy. He had to go, and good luck.